Abstract

Aim: lt's known that living conditions may influence the hospital readmissions. We investigated the relationship between socioeconomic factors and the hospital readmissions. Methods: The study was performed on 238 children, who were admitted to our hospital between March and June 2003. The age distribution of the cases was between 2 and 16 years, consisting of 115 (48.3%) female and of 123 (51.7%) male. The cases were divided in to two groups: once admitted and twice or more readmitted group. A questionnaire was filled with the parents including consanguineous marriage, number of brothers or sisters, family size (index family or not), mother's age of marriage, employment, education and income level of the family, possession of a house, a car or basic electronic gadgets, having a pet, quality of water used at home. Statistical evaluation was made with chi-square test. Results: 116 (48. 7%) of the cases were admitted once, 122 (51.3%) cases were readmitted two or more times. The most common illnesses were from central nervous system (23.1%), infectious (21.8%), urinary tract (19.3%), respiratory tract and allergic (17.2%) diseases groups and 18.6% of cases were in miscellaneous diseases group. It was found that patients in the readmission group were from families with low income and mother working (p=0.043 and 0.04, respectively). Conclusion: Employed mather and low family income may have an influence on hospital readmissions.